Louis XIV particularly appreciated Pierre Robert’s Grands Motets played in the Royal Chapel at Versailles. The CMBV choir Les Pages & les Chantres is now producing a revival of these works.

Pierre Robert (c.1622-1699) studied music at Notre-Dame choir school in Paris and served as master of music at Senlis and Chartres cathedral, then at Notre Dame. He was appointed assistant master of music at the Royal Chapel in Versailles along with Henry Du Mont. For twenty years, from 1663 to 1683, he composed church music for the French court. With Du Mont and Lully he invented the grand motet genre, the emblematic ‘French style’ greatly admired throughout Europe. He was one of the last proponents of the great French polyphonic tradition, which he raised to the highest degree of contrapuntal complexity and rhetorical refinement, as shown in his Motets pour la Chapelle du Roy published in 1684 ‘by appointment to His Majesty’. Three of the 24 motets in this programme are based on the sensual Song of Songs, a favourite biblical text of 17^th century composers, rendered powerfully evocative by Pierre Robert. There follows a motet by Du Mont, which sets the same Old Testament text to music, showcasing the CMBV choir Les Pages & les Chantres, accompanied by four outstanding soloists, former CMBV singers, and the Concerto Soave ensemble.